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I have made a lot of templates in the past by getting a copy of the plan, penciling in dimension corrections if needed, cutting out the outline, gluing it to a piece of good 1/8" ply, then cutting it out and sanding.

I am at the point where I would like to make some of my templates out of some kind of clear acrylic, lexan or whatever. I would also like to build some of my jigs this way so I can see-through them. I've done some work with plexiglass, which is a pain to cut, and gave mixed results.

What materials do you folks recommend, how do you cut them, and how do you, if you can, weld/glue them?

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

One way to do it is to perfect your template or your jig parts in 1/4" mdf. The mdf is easy to machine, nice and homogeneous and you can add pieces back on with epoxy if you mess up. Then, you can copy the perfected part in plex or better yet Lexan as Todd suggested. You can do this with a pattern bit in the router table after you double stick tape the Lexan to your mdf pattern. The standard tracing the part on the lexan and cutting to a 1/8" or less of the line so you are not routing a lot of material off when you copy the part applies.
1/8" seems pretty thin to me. Are you sure you used 1/8" ply. That would be door skin. Not much surface for a bearing on a router bit. 1/4" is about the minimum I would go. I use 1/4" mdf but there is always a gap between the cutters of the router bit and the bearing so that you have to have the bearing ride off the center of routing template. The 1/4" mdf is what I can get, is easy to shape and work but for a final template 3/8" material would be better.
I am talking mainly router templates here, if building a jig use what ever thicknesses are appropriate. You can use multi ply plywood as in baltic birch or apple ply for jigs in combination with the Lexan as well.
One other thing, if you use 1/2" or 3/8" Lexan or what ever for your final jig/template and plan to use guide bushings some guide bushings are deeper than 1/2". It is a easy fix to take a piece of wood say 3/8" thick, drill a hole to insert the guide bushing through and file or grind the bushing down so it doesn't protrude past the pattern. They are cheap and easily modified.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Todd - thanks for the link, it answered most of my questions - I should have searched the tutorials first .

Link - I use a high quality 1/8" ply. A friend gave me about a sheet and a half's worth when he got out of the model airplane business. I think it's birch. I use my templates for layout only. I can see where the 1/4" MDF would work well for getting your templates perfected. I do want to build a jig so I can use a pattern bit for the neck mortise and tennon. I don't care to use pattern bits and my router table usually just holds my belt sander. Of course, that may change.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve,

As a not-that-useful-but-maybe-interesting addendum, I'll tell you how I do it.

I draw my template/jig parts in Corel Draw, then "print" them to my Epilog laser engraving machine where a 45W carbon dioxide laser with a beam width of about 0.002" cuts them out precisely for me. I mainly use clear cast acrylic. If necessary, I glue the jig pieces together using liquid acrylic cement. I position the parts carefully and clamp them, then using a needle dropper, squirt a small amount of the glue (like water) into the joint/s and leave them to set for a minute or two. Done.

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Dave, You just plunged me into a serious bout of tool envy

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

found these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUUias74 ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPaihVmz ... re=related